Vorinostat, represented by structural formula (I) and chemically named as N-hydroxy-N′-phenyl-octanediamide or suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), is a member of a larger class of compounds that inhibit histone deacetylases (HDAC). Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDI) have a broad spectrum of epigenetic activities and vorinostat is marketed, under the brand name Zolinza®, for the treatment of a type of skin cancer called cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). Vorinostat is approved to be used when the disease persists, gets worse, or comes back during or after treatment with other medicines. Vorinostat has also been used to treat Sézary's disease and, in addition, possesses some activity against recurrent glioblastoma multiforme.

Vorinostat was first described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,108, wherein four different synthetic routes for the preparation of vorinostat are disclosed (Schemes 1 to 4).
The single step process illustrated in Scheme 1 involves coupling of the diacid chloride of suberic acid with aniline and hydroxylamine hydrochloride. However, the yield of this reaction is only 15-30%.

The multistep process illustrated in Scheme 2 begins with the monomethyl ester of suberic acid, which undergoes conversion to the corresponding acid chloride. Further coupling with aniline gives the methyl ester of suberanilic acid. Hydrolysis of the ester and further coupling with benzyl protected hydroxylamine gives benzyl protected vorinostat which on deprotection gives vorinostat.

In addition to the disadvantage of being a five-step process with overall yields reported as 35-65%, this process suffers from further disadvantages such as the use of the expensive monomethyl ester of suberic acid.

The two step process illustrated in Scheme 3 involves coupling of the diacid chloride of suberic acid with aniline and O-benzyl hydroxylamine and then deprotection. However, the overall yield of this reaction is only 20-35%.

The process illustrated in Scheme 4 is similar to that illustrated in Scheme 3, with the exception that O-trimethylsilyl hydroxylamine was used instead of O-benzyl hydroxylamine. The overall yield of this reaction is reported as 20-33%.
Another process for the preparation of vorinostat has been reported in J. Med. Chem., 1995, vol. 38(8), pages 1411-1413. The reported process, illustrated in Scheme 5, begins with the conversion of suberic acid to suberanilic acid by a high temperature melt reaction. Suberanilic acid is further converted to the corresponding methyl ester using Dowex resin and the methyl ester of suberanilic acid thus formed is converted to vorinostat by treatment with hydroxylamine hydrochloride. However, this process employs high temperatures (190° C.) in the preparation of vorinostat which adds to the inefficiency and high processing costs on commercial scale. The high temperatures also increase the likelihood of impurities being formed during manufacture and safety concerns. The overall yield reported was a poor 35%.

Another process for the preparation of vorinostat has been reported in OPPI Briefs, 2001, vol. 33(4), pages 391-394. The reported process, illustrated in Scheme 6, involves conversion of suberic acid to suberic anhydride, which on treatment with aniline gives suberanilic acid. Coupling of this suberanilic acid with ethyl chloroformate gives a mixed anhydride which upon treatment with hydroxylamine gives vorinostat in an overall yield of 58%. In the first step, there is competition between the formation of suberic anhydride and the linear anhydride and consequently isolation of pure suberic anhydride from the reaction mixture is very difficult. This process step is also hindered by the formation of process impurities and competitive reactions. In the second step, there is formation of dianilide by reaction of two moles of aniline with the linear anhydride. In the third step, suberanilic acid is an inconvenient by-product as the suberanilic acid is converted to a mixed anhydride with ethyl chloroformate, which is highly unstable and is converted back into suberanilic acid. Consequently, it is very difficult to obtain pure vorinostat from the reaction mixture. Although the reported yield was claimed to be 58%, when repeated a yield of only 38% was obtained.

A further process for the preparation of vorinostat has been reported in J. Med. Chem., 2005, vol. 48(15), pages 5047-5051. The reported process, illustrated in Scheme 7, involves conversion of monomethyl suberate to monomethyl suberanilic acid, followed by coupling with hydroxylamine hydrochloride to afford vorinostat in an overall yield of 79%. However, the process uses the expensive monomethyl ester of suberic acid as starting material.

In conclusion, the major disadvantages of the processes disclosed in the prior art for the preparation of vorinostat can be summarised as follows:                The reaction schemes can involve lengthy process steps to obtain vorinostat and/or are low yielding.        The reagents used in the processes can be very expensive and not cost effective for commercial manufacture.        The product is obtained only after column chromatography or extensive purification steps and this reduces the overall yield and puts severe restrictions on the feasibility of the process for scale-up to commercial production.        All the processes generally require isolation and/or purification of reaction intermediates.        
In view of the importance acquired by vorinostat for the treatment of cancer, there is a great need for developing an alternative, relatively simple, economical and commercially feasible process for the synthesis of vorinostat with commercially acceptable yield and high purity.
The present inventors have surprisingly found that vorinostat can be prepared with very high purity employing a simple, efficient process starting with the readily available precursor suberic acid.